Favored
by The Evil Author
Summary: Before joining her new unit, Adora recieves lectures, orders, and a going-away present. Sequel to Mission Report.


Title: Favored Part 1  
  
Author: Nopporn Wongrassamee aka the Evil Author  
  
EMail Address: EvilAuthor@aol.com  
  
Archive: Anywhere and everywhere. Just tell me if you do.  
  
Spoilers: Anything goes  
  
Summary: Before joining her new unit, Adora recieves  
lectures, orders, and a going-away present. Sequel to  
Mission Report.  
  
Disclaimer: Characters and concepts belong to their  
owners who I'm too lazy to list.  
  
  
  
The Ambassador, Adora thought, was a Frog.  
  
He drooled. He was slimy. He made lewd jokes. He also had  
an overinflated ego. None of these traits endeared him to  
Adora. But he was also Hordak's guest, so Adora couldn't  
just clock him no matter how much he annoyed her.   
  
When Adora was younger, Hordak had been careful to forbid  
her from attending his many political or diplomatic  
parties. Hordak had told her that she was too young, that  
she might impulsively do something that would embarrass  
him. At the time, Adora thought he was being unfair.  
  
Now that Hordak had deemed her old enough and disciplined  
enough, Adora wished Hordak still forbade her to attend  
these parties. But since she had officially become an  
officer of the Horde, Adora was required to attend. She  
had never imagined these parties could be so boring.  
  
The Ambassador, for example, was lecturing her ear off on  
a subject that held absolutely no interest at all for  
Adora: his people's ideology. In the distant past, the  
Ancients had taken his pure animal ancestors and uplifted  
them to full sentience by giving them human traits. In  
Ambassador's eyes, this made his people special, favored  
in the eyes of the Ancients.  
  
If Adora could have gotten in a word edgewise, she might  
have debated the Ambassador on this point. There were at  
least two other such uplifted species. In fact, the  
Ambassador's people and these others called themselves  
"mutants" and had once formed an alliance against their  
enemies, a people whose human ancestors had traits from  
different cat species grafted into them by the Ancients.  
The mutants had viewed these cat/human hybrids as  
"devolved" in contrast to their being "evolved".  
  
Frankly, the distinction was completely lost on Adora.  
  
The Frog Ambassador's monologue came to a blessed end  
when the Hyena Ambassador intruded. The second was fairly  
drunk and challenged the Frog to a duel of insults. The  
Frog accepted gladly. Of course, this quickly degenerated  
into the physical as they tried to choke the life out of  
each other. Since the cat people's homeworld - the name  
escaped Adora - had been destroyed, the mutants' alliance  
had fallen apart as they turned on each other, each  
determined to prove their own "superiority".  
  
After a few token tries at calming them down, Adora just  
took each Ambassador by their shoulders and shoved their  
heads together with a satisfying crack. Both slumped to  
the ground unconcious.  
  
"Ooh! I'm gonna tell Hordak!" said someone behind Adora,  
his whiny voice accompanied by the fast fluttering of  
wings.  
  
"Get bent, Imp," Adora replied, unruffled. She didn't  
even bother to look at the little pest.  
  
"I'll tell him you said that," Imp told her nastily as he  
fluttered around Adora. He sighed dramatically. "And  
after he sent me to fetch you, too! How ever will he  
re-ACK!" Imp was so caught up in his own melodramatics  
that he forgot to keep an eye on Adora.  
  
"Well why didn't you say so?" Adora demanded, shaking the  
little guy by the throat. "Lead the way."  
  
***  
  
"You wanted to see me, Father?"  
  
They met on a balcony offset from Hordak's throne room.  
It offered a modicum of privacy from the party going on  
inside. The balcony also offered a breathtaking view of  
the Fright Zone's rocky landscape from the top of Doom  
Tower.  
  
"Yes, I did, Adora," Hordak replied, not turning from the  
view. "Imp, you may go."  
  
"Ack!" Imp acknowledged.  
  
"Adora, please release Imp," Hordak sighed.  
  
"Yes, Father," Adora obeyed. Imp scurried away. Adora  
joined her father in admiring the scenery.  
  
Hordak wasn't really Adora's father. In fact, Hordak  
wasn't even human. The pure white skin and the glowing  
red eyes signified him as a True Hordesman, a race  
originally created by the Ancients to enforce their will  
upon all other races. Before they left for parts unknown,  
the Ancients had told the Horde that they were leaving to  
make room for the lesser races.  
  
Since they had been the enforcers of the Ancients' will,  
the Horde thought themselves as the true heirs of the  
Ancients' domain. Of course, others disputed the Horde's  
claim, usually by trying to resist Horde conquest.  
  
But there was a stumbling block. For whatever reason, the  
Ancients had not seen fit to grant the long lived True  
Hordesmen the ability to reproduce. With their numbers  
dwindling due to battlefield casualties while their  
territories were expanding at the same time, the Horde  
had to start conscripting grunts - and eventually  
officers - from their conquests.  
  
Inevitably, some True Hordesmen began adopting and  
raising youngsters of conquered races on the theory that  
the adoptees would make better officers than off the  
street volunteers. Adora liked to think of herself as an  
excellent example of this policy.  
  
"Adora, perhaps you could explain to me why you just  
assaulted my guests?" Hordak asked. "I thought you  
understood that that kind of behavior was unacceptable."  
  
"Father, your guests were brawling with each other,"  
Adora replied evenly. "I understood that that kind of  
behavior is also unacceptable. So I stopped them in the  
most expedient manner possible. Was I wrong?"  
  
"Hmm, no," Hordak chuckled. "In fact, it was a joy to see  
you do that to those two fools. Putting up with them has  
been wearying."  
  
"So why do you tolerate them at all?" Adora asked. "We  
should conquer the lot of them and be done with it."  
  
"I approve of your zeal, Adora," Hordak approved, "but  
that just isn't... practical right now. Besides, do you  
want to spend all your time on a planet full of Frogs? Or  
even the Hyenas or Babboons? Believe it or not, those two  
Ambassadors are actually representative of their people."  
  
"By the Ancients, no, Father," Adora said, shuddering at  
the thought.  
  
"Just so. Besides," Hordak continued, "I make a tidy  
profit selling weapons to all three of them since they  
seem bent on wiping each other out."  
  
Startled, Adora looked at Hordak wide eyed. "I thought we  
did that to weaken the mutants for eventual conquest,  
Father," Adora said slowly. "This talk of making a profit  
seems...well, sordid."  
  
"Ah, Adora, ever the warrior," Hordak said fondly. "You  
should never blind yourself to all the benefits of any  
activity. Of course we're sofening the mutants up for an  
easy conquest. In the meantime, why shouldn't I benefit?  
There's no negative impact on the long term strategy,  
after all."  
  
"I...see," Adora said, taken aback at the idea.  
  
"In any case, that's not why I originally called you out  
here," Hordak continued. He held up a sealed message. "I  
believe I have something for you."  
  
"Thank you, Father," Adora said, relieved at the change  
in subject. She took the message. "Is that what I think  
it is?"  
  
"Open it and find out," Hordak teased.  
  
Adora broke the wax seal and unrolled the message. Her  
eyes read the fourished text. "I've been assigned to  
Bright Moon?" she asked, looking up at Hordak. The former  
kingdom of Bright Moon was a recent conquest, the last of  
Etheria's major kingdoms to fall to the Horde.  
  
"Yes, General Sunder thought you could use a little  
experience after what happened on E... on your last  
assignment," Hordak told her.  
  
"Father, I did the best I could," Adora protested. "If  
I'm to be punished with garrison duty..."  
  
"Adora, don't look on this as punishment," Hordak soothed  
her. "Look at it as a learning experience. Bright Moon is  
still a hotbed of resistance. There should be more than  
enough glory to go around. Besides, we're not conquering  
any mew places at the moment."  
  
"Alright, Father," Adora said dubiously.  
  
"Now, before you report to your new unit, I have a going  
away present for you."  
  
***  
  
"I want that one," Adora declared, pointing.  
  
"I should have known," Hordak mused. "You always did like  
horses."  
  
By tradition, Horde infantry officers rode live mounts  
into battle. Motorized vehicles were simply too rare and  
expensive to serve as personal transport. The Horde's  
limited vehicle production went primarily to producing  
support craft like gunships and the occaisional troop  
transport.  
  
The exception was the air scooter, but no officer would  
pilot the ridiculous looking things. The air scooter was  
little more than a cicular antigravity pad barely big  
enough to stand on. A control yoke was mounted on one  
side. Aside from appearance, piloting an air scooter  
required the use of both hands. This meant the pilot  
couldn't fly and use a weapon at the same time.  
  
For live mounts, Horde officers favored a variety of  
animals. There was eveything from bulls to giant cats.  
Flying creatures were not unknown but quietly discouraged  
since their mobility had a tendency to seperate the  
officer from his troops. At the Academy, the Chief  
Instructor for Adora's cadre had ridden a rare wooly  
mammoth.  
  
Having the run of Hordak's stables and corales outside  
of Doom Tower, Adora's gift was that she could choose any  
animal there to be her mount. Adora's choice was a  
beautiful white stallion with a pink mane and tail. The  
horse prowled restlessly around its corale.  
  
"That one? Oh dear," Hordak's stablemaster said, dismayed  
by Adora's choice. "Mistress Adora, are you sure?"  
  
"Yes, he's perfect," Adora answered. She noticed the  
stablemaster's nervousness. "Why? What's wrong with him?"  
  
"Yes, what?" Hordak echoed threateningly. "If your duties  
have become too onerous..."  
  
"Oh, no, no, no, Master," the stablemaster fretted. "It's  
just that this horse was just freshly captured from the  
wild. He's still mostly untamed. Why, he injured two  
slaveboys in the past week since I recieved him. Surely  
he would do Mistress Adora harm."  
  
Studying the stallion, Adora smiled. "Saddle him up," she  
ordered.  
  
"Mistress? That horse won't let any of the slaveboys  
close enough," the stablemaster protested. Quietly, he  
added, "It takes time to train them, you know."  
  
"Adora, perhaps you should consider a different mount,"  
Hordak said thoughtfully. "It simply wouldn't do to have  
you injured before you even report for duty."  
  
"No, I want this one, Father," Adora said stubbornly. She  
smiled reassuringly to Hordak. "I know what I'm doing.  
I'll be fine." She turned to the stablemaster. "Give me  
all the gear. I'll saddle him myself."  
  
"What?!" Hordak and the stablemaster exclaimed at the  
same time.  
  
***  
  
As she approached the stallion, Adora was peripherally  
aware that she had attracted an audience. There was of  
course Hordak and the stablemaster. Both were afraid for  
different reasons that the horse was going to hurt Adora.  
But neither was prepared to forbid Adora this.  
  
Then there were the slaves who tended the animals in  
Hordak's stables. Word had spread rapidly and they were  
gathering around the corale to watch Adora make a  
spectacle of herself. The slaves were also apparently  
making bets among themselves, although Adora had no idea  
what they had to wager. Now that she thought about it,  
Adora really had no idea what a slave's lot in life was  
like at all; they had always just been there.  
  
She banished such distractions from her mind. Adora's  
foremost audience now was the stallion himself. He had  
stopped prowling the corale when Adora had entered his  
domain. He eyed her, pawed the ground, and did other  
horsey things to indicate nervousness.  
  
Nervousness was bad. He might do something Adora would  
regret.  
  
"Nice horse," she said soothingly to the horse, holding  
out a hand for him to sniff. "That's a nice horse. I want  
to be your friend. You want to be my friend? I know you  
do."  
  
The stallion threw his head that looked sort of like a  
nod and shake at the same time. Adora decided to ignore  
the ambiguity. He hadn't bolted. That was good enough for  
her. He took a good whiff of Adora's scent and seemed to  
relax.  
  
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Adora," she continued,  
close enough now to pat his hide and stroke his mane as  
she moved to his side. "You're the most wonderful horse  
I've ever seen. Yes you are. Would you let me ride you?"  
  
As if he really understood her, the horse turned his head  
to look at Adora better. He eyed the saddle and other  
riding gear that Adora was carrying with what she could  
have sworn was skepticism in his eyes.  
  
"Now this won't hurt you at all," Adora told the horse as  
she held up the saddle. "It's just to help me, okay?" She  
set the saddle on the horse's back.  
  
Startled, the stallion reared up on his hind legs with a  
loud neigh. Holding one hand onto his mane and one on the  
saddle, Adora was lifted off her feet. Acting more on  
instinct than anything else, Adora let the saddle go  
flying into the dirt while she swung her self onto the  
stallion's now bare back. This induced him to cavort some  
more in an attempt to dislodge Adora.  
  
After what seemed like forever, he stopped bucking. He  
didn't seem exhausted to Adora. Maybe he actually liked  
her up there. Now, all Adora had to do was persuade him  
to wear all the riding gear. But that would require her  
to actually get off her horse's back, something she  
didn't want to do just yet.  
  
Of his own will, Adora's stallion trotted around the  
corale, practically snarling a dare at the onlookers to  
get in biting range. No one seemed incline to take him up  
on it. Two onlookers in particular caught Adora's  
attention.  
  
"I don't believe it," the stablemaster said, gawking at  
girl and horse.  
  
"Ha! That's my girl!" Hordak laughed proudly, slapping  
the stablemaster on the back hard enough to almost send  
him tumbling into the corale. Luckily for him, Adora and  
her ride were on the other side of the corale at that  
moment.  
  
"You've certainly got spirit," Adora told her mount as he  
glared the now dispersing crowd. "Hey, would you like to  
be called that?"  
  
Adora's new stallion whinnied a reply.  
  
"Okay, 'Spirit' it is!"  
  
***  
  
Next: In Part 2, Adora joins her new unit, meets friends  
and enemies, and has trouble telling them apart. 


End file.
